Fuji FinePix S200EXR

Got this Wednesday, 9-17-09 from Amazon. Charged the battery in about an hour, then went out to put this puppy to work. I'm delighted! In fact, since receiving it Wednesday, I've taken almost 800 pics with this beauty.

The biggest day of shooting here in Arizona involved some difficult shots. I started out in Kingman, Arizona retaking pics I'd previously taken with my Sony A200 and good Minolta AF zoom lenses. The Sony is 10 megapixel.

Results: In all cases this 12 megapixel Fuji far outperformed the A200 DSLR in details right out of the camera. So the lens on the Fuji is very sharp.

Frim Kingman, I went to Yarnell and again retook pics I'd taken in the past with the Sony. Once again, the results were better. Great definition. Wonderful colors. In fact pics that looked washed out with the Sony came out really well with the Fuji. Yeah, I know it's not an exact comparison, because i wasn't shooting with one camera and immediately shooting with the other. But, like definition from my lenses, and this Fuji delivered very well.

On the way to Yarnell, one drives up a curvy mountain road with bolders and wonderful suguaro cactases all around. I've shot a certain site with the Sony A200, Sony H7, and Sony H3. Because there isn't much contract between the boulders, terrain, and cactus, I never got decent results. However, that all changed with the Fuji just using the automatic point-and-shoot function. Finally, I got pictures that showed the wonderful scenic wonders of those lovely cactuses and boulders with small green shrubs and dary sandy terrain.

I shot some scene using the function that shoots 3 pics of the same scene by pressing the shutter release once. That's wehre the camera simulates three different Fuji films. Frankly, I didn't see much difference in the results when really examining the reults closely when loading them on my computer. Yes, they all gave me great results, but I couldn't see much difference in the pics taken by each time of film simulator.

Then I went to Skull Vally where there's a general store dating back to about 1908. In the past, I've gotten decent pics of that with a variety of cameras. But when I used the Fuji at various zoom ranges, the results were great. I even used the sepia and black and white tones, as well as the normal color. I also tried vivid, and they really jumped out at me. All tones were great.

Across from the general store is an old gas station. It's painted in oranges and greens and yellows. Very bright. Can cause problems trying to get really good reproductions of that statiion and all its rustic neatness. But the Fuji performed very well with shots of that as well. And I took dozens from all angles using the zoom from full wide to fully extended at 436mm. I'm very pleased the results.

Also took some pics of what appears to be sandstone formatiions jutting out of the ground. In the past, I couldn't get any details of those formations. But with the Fuji, I got every detail without having to any adjustments to the camera in either color, or sepia toned pics. I couldn't get over how I finally got some good pics of those formations.

Here's the thing that surprised me. By using the viewfinder only, I took exactly 417 shots in all the places I went to. And the battery indicator still shows that 1/2 power still remains. That sure beats the specs I read about the battery.

While in Yarnell, I found a field of some kind of wild flowers. Very white/yellow in color. Very bright in the desert sunlight at elevation 5,200 feet. COuld be a probloem trying to get macro shots of big bugs landing on those flowers. Especially the kinds of bugs there the other day. I don't know what kind they were. But they were about 1 inch long, and navy blue in color. Sings are a kind of mustard-orange. Maybe like the color of honey mustard. Now, this makes for a tough exporuse, becasue those dark colored bugs were on top of the flowers. Plus the sandy ground added more iffy things to the challenge. Well, I used the super macro, and I'm amazed at the pics I got. Especially on one flowering plant, which had a second bug that was bright red and yellow on it's back. Thus, two different color bugs on the same plant, and the plant is brilliant white/yellow. Well, this Fuji came thorugh like a champ. The red/yellow bug is clearly defined with it's natural bright color. The 1 inch bug looks deep nay glue and yet it's honey-mustard colored wings are clearly defined---can even see the veins in the wings. Like veins on a leaf. And the plants are clearly defined. Nothing is washed out.

I was as close as I could get to those bugs on the flower. I ended up with marvelous macro shots. Well defined, perfect coloring, nothing washed out.

So, I'm very delighted with this camera. For me, it's a keeper. Only wish I could have caught the big discount. No sonner had I bought it, and the price was cut by a nice chunck. Such is life.

I also shot some pics off my HDTV. Got brilliant results. I mean brilliant.

Tomorrow, I'm taking it out again. Gonna head for other scenic areas in this part of Arizona. I'll take pics of everything I see. And I expect it to perform just as well as it has over th the past few days.

Also very interesting are the many displays you get. Never saw anything like it. For example, when you use the feature that takes 3 shots of the same pic with the 3 different Fuji simulated films, you get quite a presentation in the screen. I mean each shot appears, and little blocks around things...what a production. Way beyond my expectations.

Can't wait to take more pics with this terrific camera.

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